There is a continuing theme in Congress and many of our State Legislatures that what’s good for goose, is only good for the goose.

Take a gander. Yes, you read that right. Congressmen can fly around in private jets, and can even buy brand-spanking new ones. Even though they criticize those in the business world who do the same (remember the CEOs of the Big Three Auto companies?). The best part is, Congress does it with money that they forcibly take from us (I am loathe to call it “theft”, although the temptation to do so has grown in the past six months). Businesses do it with money they earn. Earn.

I think I will start a new category: Congressional Exemptions.

You see, Congress is of the opinion that they are, ahem, not always obliged to conform to the same set of laws or ideals that the rest of us are.

Truly.

And this is due in no small part to the Constitution of the United States. Yes that very document that we hold so dear as the last vestige of solace to those that would decry a tyrannical government.

Article I, Section 6 (The Legislative Branch – Compensation): …”They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during [...]

Some like to use the Court System. Some like to use creative Congressional Legislation. Some even like to use Executive Orders.

Others seek a coalition of states to enact laws to just circumvent the Constitutional system.

Today we look at a bill before the Iowa General Assembly (House version, Senate version). This same bill has already been enacted into law in Maryland and New Jersey. It is still in the “Study Bill” state (in a committee for review), and will essentially cause Iowa to select Electors based on the National Popular Vote results instead of Iowa’s Popular Vote results. Once enough states opt into this coalition to cover 270 electoral votes (the number of votes currently needed to win the Presidency), the law would go into effect. In case it’s not obvious, the point is to make the College meaningless.

I am very concerned about this bill. I’ll start by saying I support the Electoral College structure

that we have in place today to mange the electing of the President, and although I could use this space to explain my support for it, my concern with the bill is not in the value of the College, but rather in the Compact that this bill places Iowa in.

This bill, in concert with the same language in other states’ codes, is intended [...]

Yes, we’ve been out of pocket for a few weeks now. After returning from family matters, work (yes, I have a real job) was a bit overwhelming for many reasons. At any rate, we hope that the new year will provide us both more opportutnity to share daily thoughts and to begin expanding the focus of The Conservative Reader to more principled discussions.

Tonight and tomorrow many of us will be visiting our local churches to share in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our family will be worshiping this evening.

Three things to share today.

The First Amendment

Thank God for the freedom in our society, as declared by the wisdom of the founders of our country, to worship freely as we see fit, or not to worship at all. I’m sure that some of the motivation behind this right comes from the surprising amount of diversity and infighting among different groups (denominations) who all profess to worship the same Christ, and the history of violence of government against those who do not worship the government’s official “church”. And yet I’m also confident that the generation that established our Bill of Rights also perceived the need to protect any who chose to worship other than the norm, including Jewish, Islam, Native American religions, Oriental religions, or none at all.

This is a precious freedom, and one of a handful that if we ever [...]

I watched Friday’s John and Cindy McCain interview on The View.  Below is part 1; parts 2 and 3 should be accessible from the video.

I see several posts refering to this interview as “McCain Grilled On The View”, for instance this story at Huffpo, and this one at Century Of The Common Iowan.
A stretch to [...]

Thank goodness, albeit another split decision, the court came through with a good decision. In DC v Heller, the court ruled in favor of gun ownership. We discussed this case back when arguments wrapped up in April. For those of you that are sure to argue that my position yesterday was [...]

The Conservative Reader is exceptionally happy to read about 13 Des Moines, Iowa students from East High School who placed first in Iowa and went to Washington, DC to participate in the national finals for “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution”.  The event hosted 1,200 students from around the country.
The contest  had students [...]

I’m still a little overwhelmed by the events of Valentine’s Day.
People died or were injured and should not have been. It never should have happened. As with any other shooting of this type, we will have days of analysis about the drugs that this young man stopped taking, about the easy availability of [...]

As disappointing as it may be, we’re closing Contest #3 without a winner.
As you may recall, the question was:
Provide the textual portion of the US Constitution that describes the well-known concept of Judicial Review, which gives the Federal Judiciary the authority to determine the constitutionality of US or State laws. Then, please name the first [...]